My younger brother Ron and I were very big for our age. When people told Pop, "You have really good looking boys," Pop would smile and agree: "Yep, they're strong as an ox and nearly as smart."

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Obama's History Challenged

A couple of weeks ago a letter writer to our local weekly newspaper, the Independent Coast Observer, wondered what earth I lived on. I’m happy to report I live on one with a history book that begins before 1975, and where positions are based on facts and reason.

On election night, Obama said, “Even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime—two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.”

I don’t know how Obama defines “our lifetime,” but mine began with wars against Germany and Japan, and included the Korean and Vietnam Wars. To put events in perspective, more American military were killed in Vietnam in an average four-month period during the last year of LBJ’s presidency than the total killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.

In the 44-day Battle of the Bulge near the end of World War II, over 19,000 U S military were killed. In the American Civil War, almost 5,000 Americans were killed in the one-day Battle of Antietam, more than in Iraq and Afghanistan to date.

“A planet in peril” must refer to the global cooling that will soon (in less than 2,000 years) mark the end of this current warm interglacial period. Since there has been no warming for the past ten years, it looks like our planet has removed itself from an Al Gore-induced peril panic.

As far as “the worst financial crisis in a century” goes, a century is 100 years, 100 years ago would be 1908, and the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression began in 1929 (21 years later). For Obama and his math-challenged followers, it appears that the event considered the worst financial crisis the world has known occurred less than a century ago. The current financial crisis may get worse, but it has a long way to go to beat the Great Depression.

Since Obama and the Democrats created the current financial crisis through their advocacy of sub-prime loans for “affordable” home ownership and their opposition to Republican attempts to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that the collapse occurred after two years of Democrat control of Congress, the obvious solution would be to throw the bums out.

And start working on the real crises, saving Social Security and Medicare from Democrat neglect.